West Paces Advisors Inc. Buys 399 Shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

West Paces Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 4.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 10,153 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 399 shares during the period. West Paces Advisors Inc.’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $1,573,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in AbbVie by 0.9% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 160,747,355 shares of the company’s stock valued at $23,961,001,000 after purchasing an additional 1,450,089 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley grew its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 32,175,527 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,796,085,000 after purchasing an additional 914,485 shares during the last quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in AbbVie by 89,097.0% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 29,203,106 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,719,514,000 after purchasing an additional 29,170,366 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in shares of AbbVie by 2.3% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 21,936,279 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,269,822,000 after buying an additional 491,391 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its stake in shares of AbbVie by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 20,356,072 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,034,276,000 after acquiring an additional 352,817 shares during the last quarter. 70.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have weighed in on ABBV. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on AbbVie from $187.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, February 5th. Raymond James lifted their target price on AbbVie from $181.00 to $189.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, February 5th. William Blair upgraded shares of AbbVie from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 29th. Truist Financial increased their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 6th. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on AbbVie from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, AbbVie presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $177.43.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other AbbVie news, EVP Azita Saleki-Gerhardt sold 52,870 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $173.71, for a total transaction of $9,184,047.70. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 243,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $42,375,512.24. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other AbbVie news, EVP Nicholas Donoghoe sold 21,082 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $176.30, for a total value of $3,716,756.60. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 55,903 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,855,698.90. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Azita Saleki-Gerhardt sold 52,870 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.71, for a total transaction of $9,184,047.70. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 243,944 shares in the company, valued at approximately $42,375,512.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 383,324 shares of company stock worth $67,780,003. 0.25% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

AbbVie Stock Performance

ABBV stock traded up $0.87 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $162.54. 4,772,207 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,663,312. The stock has a market capitalization of $287.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 59.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.58. AbbVie Inc. has a 52 week low of $130.96 and a 52 week high of $182.89. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $176.23 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $159.81. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.02.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last issued its earnings results on Friday, February 2nd. The company reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.76 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $14.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.02 billion. AbbVie had a return on equity of 162.28% and a net margin of 8.95%. AbbVie’s quarterly revenue was down 5.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.60 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that AbbVie Inc. will post 11.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 15th will be paid a dividend of $1.55 per share. This represents a $6.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.81%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 12th. AbbVie’s payout ratio is currently 227.11%.

About AbbVie

AbbVie Inc discovers, develops, manufactures, and sells pharmaceuticals worldwide. The company offers Humira, an injection for autoimmune and intestinal Behçet's diseases, and pyoderma gangrenosum; Skyrizi to treat moderate to severe plaque psoriasis, psoriatic disease, and Crohn's disease; Rinvoq to treat rheumatoid and psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, atopic dermatitis, axial spondyloarthropathy, ulcerative colitis, and Crohn's disease; Imbruvica for the treatment of adult patients with blood cancers; Epkinly to treat lymphoma; Elahere to treat cancer; and Venclexta/Venclyxto to treat blood cancers.